America's Most Fabulous China

A descendant of Pocahontas with a passion for pearls and furs, Edith Wilson hosted formal dinners served on Lenox china lavished with a bold blue band and gleaming 24K-gold trim dappled with patriotic stars and stripes. Her husband made the decision to emblazon the china with the presidential seal, rather than the U.S. coat of arms. It was the first time the White House used china produced entirely by American hands from start to finish. And why Lenox? President Wilson had been governor of New Jersey, as well as president of Princeton University, so the New Jersey firm was a shoo-in.

Credit: Courtesy of Lenox

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Roosevelt

For Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, Lenox produced a quietly formal china service of 1,722 pieces banded with a seafaring shade of blue (a reference to the president’s love of sailing). The price was $9,300—extravagant perhaps, except that it was Mrs. Roosevelt’s way to help keep American workers employed. And instead of being painted in gold, the Great Seal of the United States on the rim was a colored decal. The First Lady suggested one aspect of the decorations—a feather-and-rose inner border adapted from the Roosevelt coat of arms. The Roosevelts also ordered a Lenox service for the presidential yacht.

Credit: Courtesy of Lenox

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Truman

Bess and Harry Truman’s service, ordered in 1951 and delivered a year later, made its debut at a luncheon in honor of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. The ivory-colored service of 1,572 pieces featured a jade-green band and 24K-gold decorations. This china was later used by the Kennedys, who mixed it with the Eisenhowers’ flashy white-and-gold plates by Castleton.

Credit: Courtesy of Lenox

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Carter

The brilliant-green-banded Lenox china made for Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter was a gift to them from friends and wasn’t completed until after they had retired to Plains, Georgia. It was never used in the White House.

Credit: Courtesy of Lenox

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Reagan

The Reagans’ dinner parties were so big that no existing White House service had enough plates to accommodate them, so in stepped Lenox with a service for 220. Ornamented with gold latticework, the set of 4,370 pieces of red china caused an uproar when its price tag (more than $210,000) came to light in the middle of a recession. And White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier complained the dessert plates wouldn’t hold large sweets such as ice-cream bombes.

Credit: Courtesy of Lenox

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Clinton

According to Tim Carder, Lenox’s vice president of design, who worked on the pattern with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the yellow shade in the Clinton service (left) is an homage to Jacqueline Kennedy’s beloved French dishes, which she purchased in the early 1960s for her family’s personal use. The Clinton’s service is the only White House china to incorporate an image of the executive mansion (far left). Queen Elizabeth II dined on Clinton china at a white-tie dinner given by the Bushes in 2007.

Credit: Courtesy of Lenox

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Bush

Delivered 13 days before President George W. Bush left office, the 4,500-piece Bush service by Lenox is rimmed with soft-green latticework to coordinate with almost any floral arrangement. It was used at President and Mrs. Obama’s state dinner for the prime minister of India on November 24, 2009.